Singapore’s Shanmugam on gender equality: ‘We’ll re-tune society from a young age’

A. These gaps are the products of a millennia of human existence and men taking the lead role. Today, every society is trying to correct it and many societies have come quite far. Therefore, I would hesitate to say something is wrong in Singapore. Britain is an example; Japan is also trying to bridge the gender gap. It’s a problem that everyone is dealing with. And I think the pandemic exposed it in a very significant way. Because when children are at home, who ends up having to look after them?

So the gaps are in many societies, but I suppose more so in an Asian society. I don’t know enough about Latin American societies, but I think in comparison to European and American societies, in Asia as a whole there is slightly more of a cultural phenomena where more of the home care and childcare falls on the woman. But even in the West it still falls more on the woman. And it is when children stay at home that you see that coming into sharper relief.

Then you see the gender pay gap, which exists in many societies. You see a sort of corporate glass ceiling, which has been broken in many places but still remains in some others, to varying degrees in different societies.